What Will Tomorrow Bring?

Do not boast about tomorrow; for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Proverbs 27:1

Have you ever noticed how a day seldom turns out the way that we think it will?  We wake up, expecting the day to go a certain way, but unforeseen circumstances and events propel us on a course that we could not have seen.  A day that we think will be the most important of our lives turn out to be a let down; while another seemingly unimportant day turns out to be the best (or the worst) day of our lives.

This holds true for the course of our lives, as well.  As Christians, we often start on a path toward a goal, only to find the road blocked so that we are forced to take another way.  Paul experienced this when he decided to take the Gospel into Asia (Acts 15). Paul's motives and desires were pure, but God prevented him from going. It must have been both puzzling and frustrating for Paul to see his dream of reaching Asia Minor die. Unfortunately for Paul, he didn't have our benefit of seeing the situation from the future.  When God blocked Paul from going into Asia, he moved him toward Philippi, the gateway to the Roman Empire.  In effect, God was taking the Gospel into Europe, where it had the greatest potential of spreading throughout the world.

No human could have anticipated that Europe would one day be the center of civilization- and that its influence would eventually spread across the Atlantic Ocean to a New World; but God knew. While Paul had his own personal ambitions and dreams, he had the faith to set aside his desires in obedience to God's direction.  Because of Paul's obedience (and the faith and obedience of others like him), I live in a nation that was founded on Biblical principles.

Lately, I've felt a little like Paul.  Alan and I moved to Clermont (a small town in northeast Georgia) thirteen years ago, thinking that this would be the place where we would set down roots and live until we retired.  We built our dream house and invested our lives in this wonderful community. But God had other plans.  Slowly, He has clipped away at the roots that we set down; gently, but firmly, uprooting us and leading us into a new work in a new area.

This month, the last of those roots were severed.  Our dream house is sold and our belongings are being packed away into cardboard boxes.  It is a painful process, as I'm sure it must have been for Paul, but the sorrow is balanced with a hopeful anticipation of how God will be using us as we begin down this new path in our life.  After forty years of serving the Lord, we have learned (like Paul) that despite the occasional shipwrecks and stonings that we endure in our lives, God never fails us.  He has a purpose for our lives and, though we cannot see what is at the end of this path, God can- and it is sure to be awesome.